Well, here I am now at day 11. Feeling a bit better and getting down the hall for walks…just me and my IV pole like a little old man shuffling in his slippers. Another blown IV today (see attached picture) and a few more sticks for blood, and I was ready to call it a day!

Here are a few last minutes stats on my care:

1) 7 chest x-rays, a series of abdominal x-rays, a nasal culture, other cultures (you can guess on those), and I also heard the “snap of a latex glove” at 4:00 one morning (now that will wake you up!). Oh, and about 14 blood draws and 4 IV sites. Yes, I look bruised and battered but they can’t keep me down!

2) Now with the good stuff: 66 breathing treatments, 33 boluses of steroids, 22 IV bags of antibiotics, and 11,000 ml of IV fluids, (you would have thought I got run over by a truck, not just wheezing). In addition, 33 pills by mouth.

3) At last count, I have been evaluated by my primary physician (she’s awesome), a pulmonologist, a middle of the night scare with a visit from an ER doc, a gastroenterologist, an infectious disease physician, and about 7-10 surgical and medical residents. Add to that number 15 different Respiratory Therapists, 10 or so Nursing Assistants, and about 18 RN’s. What a great team they have all been!

Through this process, I have remembered one thing: “to remind my storm how big my God is, and not remind my God how big my storm was.” He doesn’t care about my/your storm. He cares about our trust in Him. Maybe easy to say since I’m getting better, but that was also how I felt in the midst of things when I was wondering if I had something worse…more critical…like lung cancer? The thought certainly crossed my mind a few times while waiting for further results. Not panicked, just wondering if that was the news, would I feel the same way? I had made my mind up….have me and do with me what you want…but I will not stop trusting you!

Maybe you should take 12 days, strap an IV pole to your body, sequester yourself in a dark room, and contemplate this question? Do you…will you trust Him?